SSP 010: Guatemala

State shifters podcast episode 10 Guatemala welcome to the State Shifters Podcast. Hello, State Shifters. Jordan here, back for another episode. It's going to be another solo one today, just me speaking to you live from a nice little park here in Mississauga, Toronto. I thought I'd take the podcast outdoors today since this is probably the nicest day we've had here in Canada for a long while and I'm absolutely loving the warm weather. So I wanted to have a little conversation with you today because I've just come back from a trip to Guatemala, which I was lucky enough to spend a week there last week and arrived home on Friday. And I wanted to share some of my experiences and thoughts around the trip and maybe what I learned. Maybe going in there, I didn't have any expectations, but coming out, I certainly expanded my perspective of what Central America is. And basically the trip was we started off in Guatemala City, so I was lucky enough that we had a friend who was from Guatemala, so she was able to kind of show us around. And she spoke Spanish, which helps a lot because not many people do speak English in Guatemala. So Guatemala City, for those who don't know, Guatemala is actually, it's actually majority of the population below the poverty line. So it's basically one of the. Has the highest population of poverty in the world. I think it's in the top three, actually. There's a massive disparity between rich and poor, and for that reason, there's actually quite a large crime rate and there's a lot of, you know, violence and crime. It's not considered the safest country to visit. But I well, warned of that before we left. But I think I tried not to let that kind of get in the way of me enjoying my time without too much fear. But from the minute we arrived, we were in Guatemala City, which is, you know, like any city is always a pretty chaotic environment. But I picked up on a definite energy, a hostile energy in this city. And I guess, you know, from what I observe, when you see shopkeepers walking around with shotguns and the police carrying massive, you know, M16 and assault rifles, it's usually a cause for hostile environments. So it was a little, when you, when you let, when we left the hotel, it was a little sketchy, but I could definitely see the disparity. You know, we stayed in a nice hotel in an area where you could see there was a bit of money. But you take, you know, a few streets out and you go and you see lots of, you know, people with quite dense energy fields looking like you know, they didn't look, look too safe, but, I mean, that's a part of the experience in any city you go to. So I try not to, you know, let that affect your decision making and traveling to Guatemala, because after we left the city, we. We visited a place called Antigua. Antigua. From the moment we arrived, I sensed a definite shift in the energy. It was a lot more relaxed and welcoming of tourists especially. There's a lot more tourists in Antigua. Antigua has a lot more culture and it was very, very cool because it had a really good mix of local and touristy, you know, restaurants, bars, cafes and lots of hostels in there. We stayed at some really, really cool hostels that, you know, was a definite reminder to me of why I love traveling and why I love staying in hostels and exploring a new city. A few things that I noticed while in Antigua, you know, I had the opportunity to, you know, walk around. I was traveling with a large group, probably about six or seven of us. And sometimes when you travel in big groups, it can be difficult because you don't often get to do the thing you want to do. You kind of. You're at mercy of the group decisions, so it's kind of going with the flow. And for me, sometimes I need time to disconnect and kind of centre myself. And that can be difficult when you're traveling in large groups and you're staying in hostels with shared rooms. So one thing that I realised while traveling is finding time to reconnect with yourself. I find that immensely valuable. There was one morning in particular where I got up early and took my favourite book, which is Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle. I went for a little stroll, found myself a nice park bench surrounded by some beautiful nature, nice trees and birds flying around. And I took that time to read and just reflect, contemplate, meditate. And that had such a profound shift on just my thinking. I noticed I was my mind just instantly. It's like you turn the dimmer switch on in your mind, it slows right down. Less thinking you're able to absorb in your surroundings. So that's such a good tip for me, is when you're traveling, just make sure if you have to get up early, if you're travelling in a big group, get up early, go for a walk. It's also a great way to explore a new city and really take the time for yourself to center back in, reconnect, find the stillness. So that was one thing I noticed quickly with Antigua, I was able to definitely reconnect with the stillness. After coming from the busy city where there was lots of things happening, the mind gets very active. So to connect again with the stillness was great. One awesome thing that I found while staying in hostels was just being able to meet people. I think when you travel, if you can try and stay in hostels, because just the environment, people are there to meet other people. People are all there for the same reason. They're all there to travel, experience the world, connect with like minded people. And when you stay at a hostel, you're guaranteed to meet amazing people, whether that's in a shared room or just out in the common areas. So one of the hostels in particular, because Guatemala, especially the Antigua area, it's, I would say it's an up and coming tourist hotspot. Certainly isn't, you know, as busy as some places I've been to in Europe, but there's hostels popping up and they're starting to gather momentum. I'm calling it early, give Guatemala five to 10 years. I think everyone going to be traveling far and wide to visit this place because it was truly beautiful. So we got to stay at this new hostel in Guatemala. It was called the Adana Hostel from memory and it was a beautiful hostel. I'll post some images in the show notes. And the best part about it was because it was so new, the owners actually welcomed us as we arrived. And because there wasn't too many people staying there at the time, it had only been open for three months. We got welcomed by the owners. And one of them, her name was Janine, she actually came up and introduced herself and just made sure we checked in and all things were going well. And I struck up a conversation with Janine and she got chatting with me. And one of the things I find most interesting when traveling and when you begin this path of this spiritual path where you're starting to raise your energy and you're starting to connect with people of higher vibration, you certainly notice when you're attracting people of similar vibration into your life. And this. And Janine was, it was soon in the conversation where she started. I asked her how she opened the hostel and how this journey began for her. And she started mentioning things like sacred geometry and the flower of life. And I instantly, my ears perked up and I knew this was, there was something, there's something special about Janine and her partner, who was, his name was Ricardo. And they started the hostel together. And wasn't until I had this conversation with her it was that I realized how special these two were. And they decided to open up a hostel purely dedicated to helping the community, dedicated to spreading a positive message through the city of Guatemala. And the reason why that was so important is because Guatemala is actually, it's heavily corrupt, the government's corrupt, the government was actually overthrown. And the city, there's no real authority in the city. People are very close minded and it's very religious. And she was saying to me that because she had decided to take this path of openness and welcoming of all and loving of all, no matter what religion or race or gender, they actually copped a lot of stick from the outside community. The ones who was heavily closed minded, who were against, I'm assuming it would be the gangsters, whoever is trying to run the city, because they weren't bribing anyone, they were opening and doing all their business the right way. They were copying a lot of stick from these authorities who were trying to take them to court and closed their hostel down. And they'd invested their pretty much their life savings into starting this place. And it was such an amazing thing for me to realize is when someone in a city like Guatemala, where the opportunities for people are very, very limited compared to what we get in a western country such as Canada, Australia, United States, for these two to recognize that what they stand for, which is inclusion, union, openness, love to stand up for that and what they believe in, to start something from that place with refusing to barge to bribery, crime, negativity from outsiders, staying true to what they believed in and creating from that and impacting a city the way they are doing it. And they're actually a strong light, A light is shining through places like Guatemala because of people like this. And it's starting to reign supreme over the dense dark energy that often surrounds these corrupt cities with corrupt governments. So I got to have a good conversation with Ricardo and Janine and we got to share a joint. They took me upstairs to the top of the balcony. We shared a joint, Amanda and I. Amanda's my girlfriend. We had a good conversation with them too. And I just felt so inspired by their courage to stay committed to what they believed in, regardless of the turmoil that was going on, the pressure from these corrupt authorities. And it left me feeling really, I wanted to help them, but I think the only way we can help them is the only way I can help them right now is telling people, if you're going to travel to Guatemala, go and stay at their hostel. Guatemala is a safe place. Guatemala is starting to become a country with such unique culture and it's because of people like Ricardo and Janine who are shining this light. So just want to give a shout out to them. It was an absolute pleasure staying at the hostel. And believe me, that place is going to be very busy soon. So make sure you check it out if you ever go. So after Antigua, we actually traveled back and got to stay at this beautiful, excuse the pronunciation, I think it was called Lake Atiwa. And we had an Airbnb overlooking an amazing lake. So volcanoes in the background, like, honestly, like a postcard. You couldn't. You couldn't imagine stuff this beautiful. But this is the funny thing for me was, you know, every. Every morning when I do my meditations and I create visualizations of the things I want to attract into my life. I visualize staying or living in a beautiful house that overlooks the ocean or water, with an amazing balcony, with space, with beautiful nature, beautiful surroundings. I visualize this stuff every morning. I've been doing it for probably the past year with the intention of one day. I'm hoping I want to live in a house like that. And when I arrived in the hostel, sorry, the Airbnb, it was honestly very similar to when we checked into our room. The view from our room, the balcony, was honestly very similar to what I would visualize every morning. An immense feeling of gratitude, awe, and just love for life just overwhelmed me as I stood there and I was like, holy shit. I manifested this into my life. This was what I visualize every morning. And even though it was only a temporary stay, and obviously my intention is to try and live in a place like that one day, it was a sign that I am a conscious creator of my reality. Everyone is creating your present reality through the thoughts that you have, and you can control life and manifest anything you want. And this to me was just another thing, just another way that the universe just reminds me that I'm in control. So it was quite a profound experience and it was quite a humbling reminder of what we're actually capable of. I've been up in my meditations from one hour a day to two hours a day, and I'm just noticing such a profound shifts as I just surrender to the process and when the quicker you do that, the quicker things start to happen. So if you can do that while traveling, surrender to the moment, surrender to what arises. Try not to resist the present moment, because when you travel, there's plenty of things that can come up where it's not always going to be within your comfort zone. It's going to challenge you and to me, it's the ultimate test. When you're traveling, when you're in new environments, when you're in chaotic environments, sometimes dangerous environments, can you relax, surrender to the process, Allow what is. Allow a light to emerge, like Janine and Ricardo coming into my life and connecting with them. There is the light of consciousness everywhere in this world, and it's shining through in so many places. You just have to open your eyes and be aware enough to see it. So that's a brief summary of my experience in Guatemala. And you know, if you're considering traveling to Central America, certainly make sure it's on the list because you will not be disappointed. And feel free to contact me if you want to get some more information about what to do, place go, what to see. Happy to share some of the places we did. And I will be going back one day. There's lots of things I didn't get to, so. It's a beautiful place. It's my first time in Central America, in Guatemala. Yeah, I highly recommend it. So until next time. I'll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.